


Chosen Paths

by Symphoenae



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Bad end, DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED, F/M, So much angst, THROUGH THE MOON SPOILERS, im not okay, there are no happy endings in this house, who wrote TTM I just wanna talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:34:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26342701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Symphoenae/pseuds/Symphoenae
Summary: (THROUGH THE MOON SPOILERS)My take on the fallout of the ending.
Relationships: Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 37





	Chosen Paths

**Author's Note:**

> I'm fucking upset don't even talk to me. Rayla you fucking idiot. Why would you do this. #MadAtRaylaSquad I swear to god I've never been this pissed at any of the TDP characters but that was such a stupid fucking choice
> 
> Also lowkey I used "Welcome to the Information Superhighway" as a song counterpart to this so go look that up if you want. It's from the World of Goo soundtrack.

Her departure in the dead of night had been for nothing. She had been so determined to go out on this mission alone to find Viren, that she’d forgotten to consider that she might not ever find him at all. It was only after a good chunk of months being off on her own that she realized that wandering aimlessly like this wasn’t helping anyone. She had to regroup and think of a better approach.

But now that she was here, standing at the gates of the Katolis castle, her nervous grip on her arm tightened. Rayla had left Callum behind for months- how many she wasn’t quite sure. Time was hard to keep track of when you were out on your own for that long. The shocked stares the guards were giving her didn’t help in her nervousness either. She dipped her head as she walked by them, unwilling to keep their gazes.

The interior of the castle itself didn’t change- not that she expected it to. But there was an unsettling static in the air that she couldn’t quite place. Rayla knew that there was no possible way that her coming back would end as nicely as she’d want it to- running off the way she did was the opposite of what Callum had wanted her to do. But he couldn’t control her. It was her choice to make, in the end. She was sticking with it.

Turning a corner, her eyes caught sight of one of the nearby windows. Her jaw dropped when she caught the scene outside in the training yard- the ground, covered in what looked to be burn marks old and new, leaves from surrounding trees scattered every which way, and- were those chunks of ice? In the middle of the day?

And in the center of all this chaos was Callum. Callum, gentle Callum, drawing runes in the air at a mile a minute, shouting out the trigger words with such ferocity it left Rayla even more stunned. He was there alone, doing these spells in rapid succession, and they were so much more powerful than they were the last time she saw him cast his magic. His movements were much quicker too. Had he been training this whole time? The hard expression set on his face seemed so alien.

“I wouldn’t go out there if I were you.” A familiar voice said from behind her.

Rayla startled, whirling around to come face to face with Ezran. “Oh… hi Ez.” She breathed quietly, returning her gaze to the floor.

Ezran stared at her long and hard while she fidgeted under his gaze uncomfortably. Nothing was being said, so Rayla felt the desperate need to break the silence before she sank into the floor.

“Listen… I had to go find Viren. And even though I haven’t yet, I’m still working on it. I will find him and then we can all finally move on!”

“I understand your intent, but your actions were so far into the side of wrong that I don’t even know what to say.” Ezran replied, voice emotionless.

“E-Ezran…”

“How could you do that to us? To him?!” Ezran’s voice began to raise as he pointed to the window, where Callum still trained outside. “You lied to him! He told me that you said that you wouldn’t, and then you just leave him again right after?! While we were all sleeping!”

“I had to do this, Ezran!” Rayla cried, desperately trying to justify herself to the young king. “Viren is still out there and you know what he’s done to me!”

“That’s not an excuse!” Ezran replied with frustration. “Any course of action would be better than the path you chose that night! You could have just told him you were still going to go, and that still would’ve done less damage than lying to his face and disappearing overnight with no warning! You were  _ wrong,  _ Rayla!”

Rayla flinched at his words, her head turning to the side and looking at Callum again through the window. “He’s gotten so strong without me…”

Ezran’s hard expression didn’t let up. “He chose his path, alone. Just like you chose Viren. We could have done this together, Rayla. So many emotions could have been spared if you had just  _ stayed.  _ But even after everything, you still left. That’s the path you’ve chosen. You can’t take it back now.”

Rayla gave him an appalled look. “I still love him, Ezran! You can’t think that I don’t!”

“That’s not the point. Callum is my brother, and part of the only blood family I have left. Don’t think I’m oblivious to the other times you’ve left him like this. Every time, you hurt him and he still chases after you to try and get you back. He tried to find you for almost two months before I managed to get him to stop. It was killing him, and I couldn’t watch that any longer. I’m not going to just sit by and let you hurt him again. Enough is enough.”

Rayla felt tears prickling at her eyes, but as she searched the young king’s face, she saw no hints of hospitality. She looked out the window at her love again- so close, but still so far.

“Go. Go back out into the world to find Viren. You wanted to be on your own, and you got your wish.” Ezran grumbled. “Spare him the hurt, for once. Just go.”

Rayla brought her trembling arms to hug herself around the middle, as she slowly shuffled away from Ezran, down the hall, and out of sight. Ezran let out a shaky breath, furiously rubbing the tears from his own eyes as he regained his composure and walked out into the yard. His brother caught sight of him immediately and gave him a friendly, yet tense, smile.

“Hey Ez!” Callum greeted, his rapid movement and spell casting coming to a halt. He caught sight of the downcast look his baby brother had, and his smile immediately dropped as he knelt down to place his hands on his brother’s shoulders. “Are you okay? What’s wrong, what happened?”

Ezran shook his head with a forced smile. “Nothing. I just love you, Callum.”

Callum, knowing that Ezran wasn’t being fully truthful, pulled him into a hug regardless. “I love you too, Ezran.”

And he was none the wiser.

**Author's Note:**

> Other than this one-shot, I'm not going to be posting spoilers anywhere. Please still buy the book even though it got released to some people early. Support the cast and TDP team.
> 
> Not even gonna post my Tumblr link here because I will not respond to asks with spoilers in them. Just wait a bit longer for the book to be properly released, then we can dicuss~


End file.
